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By Matt Audilet
Contributing Sports Writer
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The Minnesota Vikings turned the starting quarterback job over to J.J. McCarthy before the 2025 NFL season, electing to move on from veteran signal caller Sam Darnold.
Darnold went on to win a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, and McCarthy's debut season as the Vikings' QB1 was plagued with injuries and poor play.
McCarthy finished the year with a 6-4 record, completing 57.6% of his pass attempts for 1,632 yards, 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
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The Vikings fired now-former general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah after the team missed the playoffs with a 9-8 record. Executive vice president of football operations Rob Brzezinski, who currently holds GM duties, says Minnesota is not "ruling anything out" when it comes to the team's quarterback situation in 2026.
“We have not a ton of time, but we have a couple of weeks and so we’re exploring every option that could be out there,” Brzezinski said, via Kevin Seifert of ESPN. “It’s casting a wide net, I guess I would say.”
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"What we do know is we need a level of baseline quarterback play for us to be effective," Brzezinski added. "A lot of this has been J.J. in unfortunate [situations] with some of the injuries and things that he's dealt with, but we're going to explore every opportunity, and I don't think there's anything specifically we're looking for.
"We can't manufacture anything that's not there. So number one, what are the options? Is it reciprocal? Is it financially doable? All those things. There's just a lot of factors that go into it," he continued.
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At the Vikings' end-of-season press conference, head coach Kevin O'Connell admitted that the team needs to bring in competition at the quarterback position.
“I think there has to be,” O’Connell said, via the team’s website. “That’s what’s going to make everybody better in that room. ... I ultimately think that’s what will [prepare] not only the starter but the next guy and the next guy, and we’ve learned we’ve got to get a lot of guys ready to play. And we’ve got to do it with a responsibility of being the best version of our offense.”
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